| Child benefit will be means tested, says Iain Duncan Smith Work and pensions secretary claims universal credit will replace child benefit by 2017Child benefit, which is to be stripped from higher-rate taxpayers, will soon be means tested, Iain Duncan Smith has claimed.The work and pensions secretary said the benefit would be absorbed into a new universal credit by 2017, dealing with problems raised by George Osborne's controversial announcement.Duncan Smith also suggested that if the credit were based on household income rather than individual income, it would tackle anomalies in Osborne's plan.The chancellor said this week that he did not want to means test child benefit as it would make the system more complicated. He instead announced that from 2013 he would withdraw child benefit from anyone earning more than £44,000.The fact that Osborne's reform may only be in place for four years – between 2013 and 2017 – will concern those already questioning its political wisdom.Speaking at an Observer fringe event, Duncan Smith said there would be measures to "rectify" the effect of the cut.He said: "We have identified that there is a problem here ... Come the spending review this will be brought into context."We're bringing in a thing called the universal credit, which will actually be a device which brings together all this stuff and we'll be able ... to rectify and ameliorate some of these points because of the way it tapers and all that. That is what the prime minister was talking about. This is only one element of a larger package."Questions were raised over the extent to which cabinet ministers were consulted over child benefit. David Cameron has claimed he abolished sofa government, reinstating formal cabinet committees. But Theresa May, the home secretary, and Michael Gove, the education secretary, were among cabinet ministers left squirming as they refused to say when they were told of the plan. Lady Warsi, the Conservative chairwoman, also tried to sidestep the issue of consultation by saying it would be inappropriate for her to say whether the issue had gone to cabinet committee.Some have claimed the details were not decided until Sunday.Cameron has insisted he decided to hit middle-class incomes as early as June, to show that everyone had to share the burden of reducing the deficit. He was clear in his own mind that he would have to tackle child benefit, even though it had already been frozen for two years.He expected a backlash, but is frustrated at the reaction of papers such as the Daily Mail.His team may also have overestimated the media impact of its cap on benefit claimants, the firecracker measure held back for Osborne's speech, designed to balance the child benefit cut. It affects only 50,000 families and the Treasury was unable to say how much it would raise.Critics of the child benefit plan point to the anomaly of two parents earning a total of up to £88,000 a year keeping their benefit while a mother with a partner earning just over £44,000 would lose it.Parents earning just below £44,000 also face a big disincentive to take a pay rise.Cameron was criticised for suggesting that those who lose child benefit might be compensated by a transferable tax allowance for married couples.Mike Brewer from the Institute of Fiscal Studies said: "The tax allowance is not limited to people with children, and would even go to pensioners. It would cost £500m if limited to basic-rate taxpayers ... The savings from the withdrawal of child benefit would largely be swallowed up."He said the more important development may prove to be the universal credit. "It seems Iain Duncan Smith is saying child benefit will be included in the universal credit, and only disability living allowance will be excluded. Since this credit will be based on household and not individual income, some of the worst anomalies can be addressed. It should also be possible to construct a taper that does not lead to the disincentives introduced by Osborne's scheme."Cameron was buoyed by a YouGov poll issued last night showing that 83% of people are in favour of higher-rate taxpayers losing child benefit. But some 46% still thought it was unacceptable to impose a crude cut-off at £44,000.Cameron's team will have got a glimpse of how harrowing the next few weeks are likely to be. With cuts to pensions spending and winter fuel allowance still to be announced, this week may prove to be a breeze signalling the coming of a storm.Iain Duncan SmithChild benefitConservative conferenceConservativesWelfarePatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Lord Browne review: new 'super quango' to regulate universities University standards will be toughened up to ensure students get better value for a significant hike in tuition fees. telegraph.co.uk |
What do you want to ask David Willetts, the Tory universities minister? | Andrew Sparrow I'm going to meet David Willetts on Thursday. What should I ask him?On Thursday afternoon, just over 24 hours after the publication of the spending review, I've got an interview with David Willetts. What would like me to ask?Willetts is the universities minister and his main worry this week will be how to defend the cut in university funding. Universities in England have been told to expect an 80% cut in their teaching budgets. In the EducationGuardian supplement today, Steve Smith, the president of Universities UK and vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter, says these cuts are unprecedented. "I doubt any other area of publicly funded activity will fare as badly in the spending review," he writes.The government can afford to cut university funding because it is going to raise tuition fees. It has broadly accepted the findings of Lord Browne's review into higher education funding. Vince Cable (Willetts's boss at the Department for Business) gave the government's initial response in the House of Commons last week. But there are various issues to be resolved, not least whether or not the government will impose a cap on fees. Cable implied that he was in favour. But Tory sources have said that universities should be free to charge what they like.Willetts isn't just responsible for universities. According to the department, he is also in charge of science and research (including research councils), life sciences, innovation, the Technology Strategy Board, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), the Energy Technologies Institute, the National Measurement Office, the Design Council, the UK Accreditation Service, the British Standards Institute, "and Space". I'm not planning many questions on these issues, and I'd be grateful for any inspiration.But I will ask some wider questions. Willetts is one of the brightest thinkers in his party – does he mind being called "Two Brains"? I don't know, but I can find out – and a recent book on Conservative thought said that his contribution to Conservatism was "more substantial than that of anyone else at a senior level in the party since the downfall of Margaret Thatcher in 1990". He promoted civic conservatism, arguably "big society" Cameroonism ahead of its time, and earlier this year he published The Pinch, a book arguing today's baby boomer generation are making life too difficult for their children. How does that square with raising tuition fees? And what does he have to say about the fairness of the spending review?Willetts's Wikipedia entry is here and here's an Observer profile of him published in January. Do please post a question if you can think of one. I won't be able to ask them all, but it will help to find out what readers want to know.6pm update: Thanks for all these questions. I'm doing the interview late on Thursday afternoon, so feel free to keep adding suggestions until then.David WillettsUniversity fundingHigher educationTuition feesStudentsEducation policyAndrew Sparrowguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Flying doctor spreads its wings A flying doctor service has been extended to cover remote and rural areas across the whole of Scotland. bbc.co.uk |
Q Awards: A reformed Take That make their first public appearance, at awards ceremony in London A reformed Take That make their first public appearance. telegraph.co.uk |